Duration: 9.30 pm - 1.30 am
Tide: HW at 10.15 pm
Weather:Overcast, light drizzle for most of time, warm, humid, light southwesterly breeze
Bait: Rag, mussel
Rigs: 4/0 pennel pulley, 2 hook flapper (size 1 hooks)
Results: 3 bass, 1 Flounder, 1 Dogfish, 1 Conger
Report: I dug some rag yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon for a session today. Some of them were broken so I kept them separate and decided to use them for a short session yesterday evening. I planned to do some spinning first. I chose a rock mark I haven't fished much - fished it in Arpil and blanked.
I got set up at about 9.30 pm. The sea was calm apart from widely spaced gentle swells. I set up two rods baited with rag and proceeded to do a bit of spinning for a while but as it was so overcast the light faded quite early so I then concentrated on the bait rods. Nothing happened until darkness - then I got a knock on the rod with the two hook flapper. At first I thought I missed the bite but when I retrieved I discovered a small flounder on the bottom hook.
A little later I had a dogfish (definitely a dogfish
).The second rod was cast close to a more rocky area and about 11.30 pm as I was holding the rod I felt a good bite, struck and started to retrieve. It was a small conger.
I had planned to finish up about midnight. Close to midnight I had a strong knock on the first rod. I struck and could feel a reasonably strong fish - I reckoned it was probably another dogfish - but as I retrieved it made a run to the right - not dogfish behaviour. I hauled it out of the water to find a 42 cm bass
So with that I had to stick it out a bit longer. However, after that I had a succession of strong bites all of which I missed. I had one on for about a minute before he came off, the others weren't hooked, just grabbed the bait and let go. Then at about 1.00 pm I had another good bite and this was well hooked. It was a 43 cm bass
I decided to stick it out until all the bait was gone. I had very little rag left and was about to use some mussel. Then I felt a another bite, struck but missed it. I retrieved and checked the bait. Most of the rag on the lower hook was gone. I found one thin rag at the bottom of the container and recycled a bit I had taken off a hook earlier and recast to about the same spot. I was holding the rod and felt some gentle tugs. I thought it was probably a flounder and struck, but as I started to retrieve I felt a strong powerful fish on the end. The tide had dropped considerably at this stage and I was about 4 m above the water level. As I got the fish near it was thrashing about on the surface - but there was no way I could haul it up the cliff face, so I brought it in to the base of the rocks and holding the rod to keep the line tight I climbed down from a less steep side of the cliff to my right. I got down and grabbed the trace and pulled the fish up. It was a 63 cm bass
I had one last cast using mussel as bait while I packed away the rest of the gear. But didn't get a bite on it.
So I was very happy with that session. I hadn't expected much and really only went out to use up the broken and damaged rag. I will upload the photos tomorrow - heading out for a session in West Cork now
bet you missed those Bass 
